Entries Posted in Pricing & Rates

Generally, most consumers know the rates for mailing a 1-ounce First-Class® letter. However, many don’t know the prices of other postal service offerings, such as certification, insurance, or return receipt. In some instances, some of these services must be bundled with the mailing type.
Posting the rates for the more commonly used services in a convenient spot in the Post Offices would let customers know approximately how much services cost, allowing them to make informed decisions. For example, displaying rates for the first several ounce increments of First-Class mail, as well as the most commonly used rates for Express Mail and Priority Mail along with the rates for certification, insurance, and return receipt, would help mailers calculate the total purchase price.
Easy access to this information would allow mailers to effortlessly make price comparisons with other providers and clearly reveal the true value the Postal Service provides to consumers.
What do you think? How can the Postal Service present prices in the most effective way?

Have you ever heard of Alaska Bypass? It’s a service the U.S. Postal Service offers only in Alaska, allowing shippers to send shrink-wrapped pallets of goods at Parcel Post rates using private airlines. The Postal Service pays airlines to carry the goods to rural Alaskan communities by delivering these goods directly to the stores located in rural areas. The shippers effectively and entirely “bypass” the Postal Service’s delivery network.
The Postal Service has to pay the airlines much more than it receives in postage for this program. In FY 2010, the Postal Service lost $73 million on Alaska Bypass. In addition, the people receiving the shipments are usually retail merchants, because the orders must be at least 1,000 pounds. The Postal Service doesn’t provide this kind of service for retailers anywhere else in the country. Alaska Bypass began when it was much more difficult to get goods to rural Alaskans than it is today. There are even some that say it no longer seems to fit with the Postal Service’s mission.
The Office of Inspector General Risk Analysis Research Center has developed a white paper, Alaska Bypass: Beyond Its Original Purpose, which outlines the history of the program and the shift away from its original purpose. The paper offers various options to improve the program.
Should the Postal Service continue to pay for sending large shipments of goods to retailers and be permitted to charge the shippers more for this service? Should the 1,000-pound minimum order requirement, targeted to retailers, be eliminated in order to extend the benefit directly to consumers shopping online? What do you think?
Click here to read the white paper and we invite you to share your thoughts about this program on our blog.
This blog is hosted by the OIG’s Risk Analysis Research Center.

When mailing a letter that weighs about one ounce, the U.S. Postal Service’s 44 cents is one of lowest First Class postage rates. Whether you are mailing a letter locally or sending a greeting card across country, it still only costs 44 cents now, but will increase to 45 cents in January. The graph below compares the U.S. Postal Service’s postage rate with other countries. As you can see, Norway charges the highest rate, which is nearly four times the cost U.S. rate.

Some might feel it is reasonable for the Postal Service to increase rates and charge a fee comparable to those in other countries. On the contrary, others might say the Postal Service’s rate must remain at an affordable level, especially for people with lower incomes. They might also say raising the rate to a level found elsewhere would drive customers away even faster.
When you think about prices paid for other goods and services, just how far does 44, 50, or even 75 cents go? By comparison, a small cup of coffee at McDonalds costs a dollar, a gallon of gasoline is over $3, and a gallon of milk is about $4. Share your thoughts below.
This topic is hosted by the OIG’s Financial Reporting Directorate.

I appreciate that Uber has disrupted the taxi industry and injected some much-needed competition into it, which only benefits consumers. But the move to the Uber model of surge pricing in other industries is disappointing. Consumers are already...

Until gas gets back to where it was on Jan 20th, 2009 ($1.80 nation wide per gallon). There will be no love.We have the potential to do it, we don't have the administration that wants fossil fuel, period, so they want the cost to be high. POTUS...